Searchbits III: Eye Of The Storm

A NEW ROUND OF HE GONE. After San Francisco lost to the Rams in ridiculous fashion to drop to 4-4, the knives—already out—added numbers to their ranks. Jerry Rice:

"I think he’s gone," Rice said. … "We don’t really know if he wants to come back and be the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers...Maybe that’s starting to wear and tear on the team and it’s taking its toll."

“So I stood right by the team,” Young said. “It was right before halftime and afterwards. And I remember calling to my security guy that I’ve known for years and years, Jeff Rodriguez. I said ‘Jeff, something’s wrong with these guys. There’s a bad vibe. Guys on and off the field.’ … A lot of complaining, a lot of moaning coming off the field.”

At 4-4, San Fransico is three games back of 7-1 Arizona and one back of the Seahawks, and the way the NFC is breaking down this year the wild card teams are likely to have fancy records. The 49ers are currently behind the Packers, Cowboys, and Seahawks.

ON THE AD SEARCH. I got nothin'.

I don't know how other people are getting more than that. Schlissel just told the Daily the search is restricted to his head at the moment, so I regard all insider information on this skeptically. I don't suspect bad faith on anyone's part. I just doubt any of these sources have a great handle on the situation no matter how many times reporters use "Fact" as a sentence. Fact. (Actually, opinion.)

That goes double given the wildly divergent timelines that have been thrown out there. Sam Webb was mentioning Hackett could be around 18-24 months on WTKA, which freaked a lot of people out; Rivals was first positing nine months and now has their prediction in the heart of common sense, mid-December; Coaching Scoop just asserted that the goal was to have an AD in place by the time the whistle blows on the Ohio State game. That's 25 days from now.

In the absence of any information you don't already have or anything resembling consensus amongst the people who say they have some, I resort to common sense—

[whispering]

—nevermind. I resorted to common sense right before I projected Brady Hoke had a 0.0 percent chance of being Michigan's coach, so common sense and I aren't on speaking terms.

It is worth noting that the long Hackett timeframes may be maximums instead of likely lengths and may not preclude a long-term AD being brought in, with Hackett as a bridging aide.

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR CANDIATES OUTSIDE THE MICHIGAN BOX. A few candidates have drawn mention:

Joe Schad reported that Michigan "has targeted" Northwestern AD Jim Phillips. Phillips is the president of NACDA, which is the national trade group for ADs and was AD of the year a couple years back. Before Northwestern, Phillips was the AD at NIU; he's an Illinois grad. FWIW: I've heard from Northwestern people that Phillips is going nowhere, and he's got the list of spurned suitors to back that up.

Football Scoop's Pete Roussell brought up Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione. The site just doubled down on that, saying "sources within the industry" thought he was the name and that he would take the job if it was offered. (Bob Stoops would not be coming along.)

Sam Webb suggested that Michigan would look at Greg Byrne, the Arizona AD. This would of course be the most hilarious option.

...regarding Hackett's apparent statements about being around as long as 18-24 months. It's easy to imagine Schlissel saying to him, "You can take two years to get this done if you need to" and Hackett thinking, "I appreciate that, but we should get it done ASAP."

If I'm Hackett in that situation, I tell people I might be around as long as 24 months, because I don't want to encourage outside pressure to make a quick decision. But I also move to get in a new person quickly.

Yes, please.

For what it's worth I'd take any denials as seriously as any speculation of UM in talks with anyone, which is to say, not at all. The reasons are various and the extent to which people lie will vary, but pretty much Rule #1 when someone approaches you about a job (especially a high-profile gig) is that the conversation didn't happen until you're hired.

Basically, we have no meaningful information whatsoever until a formal announcement. Which sucks, but such is life.

You are dead-on here. Sam Webb has good info from inside recruiting and inside the program. I suspect he has no good info on this subject. Furthermore any folks within the program/department that he would speak to are going to be suspect of the new president and thus he is getting the feedback regarding worry about not paying for a top tier coach. In my opinion Harbaugh makes an ideal candidate as his previous bitching about Michigan academics makes a perfect platform that he will promote players pursuing whatever degree they want - unlike when he was an UM. Win-win for academics and athletics. If a Harbaugh isn't available I am sure we could get Hermann from OSU for equal or less than BH.

Sam is giving instruction to throw trial balloons out into the public from someone on the inside to gauge reaction.

Like that silly nonsense that the best chance to get Harbaugh was to KEEP Brandon. It's free market research. Throw something out there and watch how the fan base reacts on things like Mgoblog. . .you don't have to spend money on finding this information out hiring a PR firm where you can just come on here and gauge upvotes and downvotes for free. . ..

That's some serious trolling by him then. Because pretty much anyone else credible on the subject had said the exact opposite...that there was a snowballs chance in hell Harbaugh comes here if Brandon is the AD.

I heard on a local Detroit radio station yesterday from a local reporter that the story is coming from Phillips, who likes to float his name out there for various jobs. The reporter pooh poohed the story.

What do you expect to see in either situation: smart coach is approached for a new job at the end of the season. Smart coach is not approached for a new job at the end of the season. In both cases I'm expecting no comment, so the fact that we have no comment from JH in my view adds very little information.

It's good for him even if he really doesn't want to come here to make the Niners believe he will leave to college. It gives him leverage in a situation he doesn't have much. He could just be using us to get to the NFL team he wants with contract he'd get next year on the open market.